Corruption and Trade Tariffs, or a Case for Uniform Tariffs

Corruption and Trade Tariffs, or a Case for Uniform Tariffs PDF Author: Roberta Gatti
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Book Description
A highly diversified trade tariff menu may fuel bribe-taking behavior. Setting trade tariff rates at a uniform level limits public officials' ability to extract bribes from importers.By explicitly accounting for the interaction between importers and corrupt customs officials, Gatti argues that setting trade tariff rates at a uniform level limits public officials' ability to extract bribes from importers.If the government's main objective is to raise revenues at the minimum cost to welfare, optimally-set tariff rates will be inversely proportional to the elasticity of demand for imports. So they will generally differ across goods.Such a menu of tariff rates endows customs officials with the opportunity to extract rent from importers. If officials have enough discretionary power, they might threaten to misclassify goods into more heavily taxed categories unless importers pay them a bribe. Because of the bribe, the effective tariff rate for the importing firm increases, so demand for the good decreases.The resulting drop in import demand implies an efficiency loss as well as lower government revenues, compared with the optimal taxation benchmark without corruption.A similar argument applies when customs officials offer to classify goods into low-tariff categories in exchange for a bribe.Setting trade tariffs at a uniform level eliminates officials' opportunities to extract rents. Thus, when corruption is pervasive, a uniform tariff can deliver more government revenues and welfare than the optimally set (Ramsey) tariff benchmark.The empirical evidence confirms that these considerations are relevant to policymaking, since a robust association between the standard deviation of trade tariffs - a measure of the diversification of tariff menus - and corruption emerges across countries.This paper - a product of Macroeconomics and Growth, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study corruption. Please contact Roberta Gatti, Internet address [email protected].

Corruption and Trade Tariffs, or a Case for Uniform Tariffs

Corruption and Trade Tariffs, or a Case for Uniform Tariffs PDF Author: Roberta Gatti
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 16

Get Book Here

Book Description
A highly diversified trade tariff menu may fuel bribe-taking behavior. Setting trade tariff rates at a uniform level limits public officials' ability to extract bribes from importers.By explicitly accounting for the interaction between importers and corrupt customs officials, Gatti argues that setting trade tariff rates at a uniform level limits public officials' ability to extract bribes from importers.If the government's main objective is to raise revenues at the minimum cost to welfare, optimally-set tariff rates will be inversely proportional to the elasticity of demand for imports. So they will generally differ across goods.Such a menu of tariff rates endows customs officials with the opportunity to extract rent from importers. If officials have enough discretionary power, they might threaten to misclassify goods into more heavily taxed categories unless importers pay them a bribe. Because of the bribe, the effective tariff rate for the importing firm increases, so demand for the good decreases.The resulting drop in import demand implies an efficiency loss as well as lower government revenues, compared with the optimal taxation benchmark without corruption.A similar argument applies when customs officials offer to classify goods into low-tariff categories in exchange for a bribe.Setting trade tariffs at a uniform level eliminates officials' opportunities to extract rents. Thus, when corruption is pervasive, a uniform tariff can deliver more government revenues and welfare than the optimally set (Ramsey) tariff benchmark.The empirical evidence confirms that these considerations are relevant to policymaking, since a robust association between the standard deviation of trade tariffs - a measure of the diversification of tariff menus - and corruption emerges across countries.This paper - a product of Macroeconomics and Growth, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study corruption. Please contact Roberta Gatti, Internet address [email protected].

Corruption and Trade Tariffs, Or a Case for Uniform Tariffs

Corruption and Trade Tariffs, Or a Case for Uniform Tariffs PDF Author: Roberta Gatti
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description
A highly diversified trade tariff menu may fuel bribe-taking behavior. Setting trade tariff rates at a uniform level limits public officials' ability to extract bribes from importers.

The World Bank Research Program 2004

The World Bank Research Program 2004 PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780821364574
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
The World Bank's research is intended to address critical issues and problems facing member governments in developing and transition economies. How can the governments of the poorest countries generate enough revenue to provide the education and health services essential to reducing poverty and promoting growth and development? How can poor countries attract investors to build the infrastructure their economies need? How can they develop systems to bring clean water to the 2 billion people without it today? How can they train teachers and bring to class the 115 million children who have not yet received any education? And how can rich countries be persuaded to lower market barriers, helping to reverse the decline in export prices for poor countries that has left them earning less from trade today than in the 1970s? These are the types of questions that are addressed in this edition of 'The World Bank Research Program: Abstracts from Current Studies'. This volume reports on research projects initiated, under way, or completed from July 2003 through June 2004. It covers 151 research projects on several broad development related issues, including agriculture, health, education, environment, infrastructure, investment climate, and more. The abstract for each project describes the questions addressed, the analytic methods used, the findings to date, and policy implications.

Greed, Corruption, and the Modern State

Greed, Corruption, and the Modern State PDF Author: Susan Rose-Ackerman
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1784714704
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
What makes the control of corruption so difficult and contested? Drawing on the insights of political science, economics and law, the expert contributors to this book offer diverse perspectives. One group of chapters explores the nature of corruption in democracies and autocracies, and “reforms” that are mere facades. Other contributions examine corruption in infrastructure, tax collection, cross-border trade, and military procurement. Case studies from various regions – such as China, Peru, South Africa and New York City – anchor the analysis with real-world situations. The book pays particular attention to corruption involving international business and the domestic regulation of foreign bribery.

How Does Bribery Affect Public Service Delivery?

How Does Bribery Affect Public Service Delivery? PDF Author: Francesca Recanatini
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description


International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption

International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption PDF Author: Susan Rose-Ackerman
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1847203108
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 655

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Book Description
This collection of articles offers a comprehensive assessment of the subtle but nevertheless pervasive economic infrastructure of corruption. It provides suitable core or adjunct reading for law school, graduate, and undergraduate courses on international economics, international relations and international law. American Society of International Law This exhaustive collection, edited by Rose-Ackerman, cannot be called anything but excellent. . . . Overall, a wonderful addition to the literature. Highly recommended. C.J. Talele, Choice Susan Rose-Ackerman is a world-class economist and an authority on the economics of corruption. This is a fine reference volume that every economist interested in this important subject will want to have as a ready reference. Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia University, US Economic research on corruption aims both to isolate the economic effects of quid pro quo deals between agents and third parties, and to suggest how legal and institutional reforms might curb harms and enhance benefits. In this comprehensive Handbook, top scholars in the field provide specially commissioned essays, both theoretical and empirical, exploring both types of research. The Handbook begins with an introductory essay by the editor, followed by two chapters written by leading exponents of cross-country research. However, the focus of the Handbook is on research at the micro level, where policy can be made and evaluated. These microeconomic studies fall into several overlapping categories. The first group includes studies that link corrupt incentives to institutional structures, particularly the organization of the state. The second draws implications from surveys of households or businesses and from controlled experiments. The third concentrates on particular sectors such as education, tax administration, public works, customs services, and pharmaceuticals. Finally, two chapters assess corruption in the transition away from socialism in Europe and Asia.

What's Behind Mercosur's Common External Tariff?

What's Behind Mercosur's Common External Tariff? PDF Author: Marcelo Olarreaga
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Commercial policy
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
"Most researchers focus on the political economy (interest group pressures) approach to analyzing why customs unions are formed, but terms-of-trade effects were also important in formation of the common market of the Southern Cone (Mercosur). Terms-of-trade externalities among Mercosur's members have been internalized in the common external tariff--Cover.

The Many Faces of Corruption

The Many Faces of Corruption PDF Author: J. Edgardo Campos
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821367269
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Corruption... How can policymakers and practitioners better comprehend the many forms and shapes that this socialpandemic takes? From the delivery of essential drugs, the reduction in teacher absenteeism, the containment of illegal logging, the construction of roads, the provision of water andelectricity, the international trade in oil and gas, the conduct of public budgeting and procurement, and the management of public revenues, corruption shows its many faces. 'The Many Faces of Corruption' attempts to bring greater clarity to the often murky manifestations of this virulent and debilitating social disease. It explores the use of prototype road maps to identify corruption vulnerabilities, suggests corresponding 'warning signals,' and proposes operationally useful remedial measures in each of several selected sectors and for a selected sampleof cross cutting public sector functions that are particularlyprone to corruption and that are critical to sector performance.Numerous technical experts have come together in this effort to develop an operationally useful approach to diagnosing and tackling corruption. 'The Many Faces of Corruption' is an invaluable reference for policymakers, practitioners, andresearchers engaged in the business of development.

Transparency, Trade Costs, and Regional Integration in the Asia Pacific

Transparency, Trade Costs, and Regional Integration in the Asia Pacific PDF Author: Matthias Helble Ben Shepherd John S. Wilson
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Cost Analysis
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
Abstract: The authors show in this paper that increasing the transparency of the trading environment can be an important complement to traditional liberalization of tariff and non-tariff barriers. Our definition of transparency is grounded in a transaction cost analysis. The authors focus on two dimensions of transparency: predictability (reducing the cost of uncertainty) and simplification (reducing information costs). Using the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies as a case study, the authors construct indices of importer and exporter transparency for the region from a wide range of sources. Our results from a gravity model suggest that improving trade-related transparency in APEC could hold significant benefits by raising intra-APEC trade by proximately USD 148 billion or 7.5 pecent of baseline trade in the region.

The Law and Economics of Globalisation

The Law and Economics of Globalisation PDF Author: Linda Y. Yueh
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 184844950X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
The diversity of author backgrounds, coupled an assortment of provocative insights, makes this book a useful tool for delving into the meat of globalization, providing a succinct but authoritative overview of the underpinnings necessary to appreciate the who, what, where, and when of globalization. American Society of International Law This is a fascinating and insightful set of essays, the relevance of which has only increased with the financial and economic crisis. The ideas and basic positions of the authors range wide, but that is exactly what we require as we struggle to understand twenty-first century globalisation and what to do about it. I should like to see it in the hands of all academics and policy-makers working on global affairs. Alan Winters, University of Sussex, Chief Economist, UK Department for International Development and Former Head of Research, the World Bank This inter-disciplinary volume focuses on the economic and legal challenges confronting globalisation and the evolution of the global system. The Law and Economics of Globalisation discusses the hotly debated topic of globalisation from a wide set of perspectives of law, economics and international political economy. The authors shed new light on the legal, economic and institutional issues raised by globalisation, extending into areas previously considered as national issues. They discuss how the development of the norms, institutions and reach of the global system will be influenced by the domestic and international concerns arising from the increasing integration of countries in the new century. With contributions from lawyers, economists and other experts in the field, this book will be welcomed by academics, students, researchers, and policymakers who are interested in a comprehensive volume on economic globalisation. It will also appeal to a wider audience, such as executive education courses, as well as business and law schools.